Title: Examine Yourself.....
2005·11·26
May God's grace, comfort, and peace be with you, who came to this place after living your best in the field of life every day. We each live our lives to the fullest by focusing on our work. Especially in today's society, it has become impossible to work moderately and earn money. A person who works moderately roughly can't stand it any longer.
But what attitude did you bring when you came before the Lord today? The Lord has said to us, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” However, not all people who come to worship receive this kind of grace. Only the saints who come out with a prepared attitude receive abundantly the grace that the Lord has prepared for them. If we are not experiencing the presence and power of God in our worship and life today, it is because we come out to worship unprepared.
The Origin and Meaning of Holy Communion
Going on, Paul is quoting the words of the Lord setting up this service at the Last Supper. “On the night that the Lord was arrested, he took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, saying, “This is my body for you; do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise after supper, he took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Every time you drink it, remember me.” (23-2-25)
The Lord was an excellent teacher. He tore His body and shed His blood for us. That is how we were saved. Those who have been saved in this way should not forget that the Lord was nailed to the cross and shed His blood to save us. But we are masters of oblivion. Even the big events that were so thrilling are easily forgotten as time goes by. However, when we forget the suffering and death of the Lord on the cross, it means that our faith and grace have grown cold. Therefore, we must never forget this. The Lord, the Master Teacher, instituted the sacrament meeting in this way so that we may not forget and remember this gospel.
The Lord reminds us of Him who suffered and shed His blood for us by participating in this Eucharist. Furthermore, the Lord has allowed us to share His sacramental service until His death comes. “For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (verse 26).
Here, we understand that the meaning of the Lord's Supper is to remember the unspeakable grace and love that the Lord suffered on the cross and shed His blood to save us, and to preach the atoning death of the Lord until the Lord returns. you can see that Therefore, today we must remember this fact again at this time. As we do so, we experience new and abundant graces of the Lord's presence and pouring out upon us. However, there are times when we do not open our hearts and feel grace when we worship, especially when we participate in this holy ceremony. So our worship and this spiritual rite ordained by the Lord become obsolete. This time, there are many cases where I expected to experience a different kind of grace, but was disappointed again. Why? Where is the problem? Paul is pointing that out right in the text.
Eating and drinking of the Lord's bread and cup unworthily
Love Feast in the Corinthian Church
Verses 17-22 show how the Corinthians were unworthy of this sacrament. When they met at church, they each brought food from their home and shared it. Instead of preparing meals in the kitchen as they are today, they brought their own food from home and ate together. And during that meal, or after the meal, we had sacrament meeting.
The problem arose with that communal meal. Among the Corinthians were the rich and the poor. The rich brought good food, and the poor brought neither or none at all. However, a problem arose when we ate together. The rich only ate the good food they had brought with the rich. The rich ate among themselves and drank to get drunk. On the other hand, the poor saints were more hungry and could not help but feel miserable. As a result, disputes and resentments arose. In the end, instead of loving the poor brothers, the rich saints despised them, and further put them to the test. What a wicked and shameful sin.
By participating in the sacrament meeting under such circumstances, they were eating and drinking of their sins. Their actions disturbed the body of the Lord, the Church, and eventually brought about God's righteous judgment. This spiritual depravity caused physical illness, and many of them became sick and many died. Paul referred to this as saying that the Corinthians were being disciplined by God because they had wrongly attended this holy and solemn communion.
Examine yourself.
Above all, do I realize that Jesus Christ's death was for my sins, and have passionate gratitude and love for the Lord? Do you have a fervent zeal and determination to follow the will of the Lord through sacrifice and love? You have given up your holy body for me, what am I offering for you? Are you doing your best to dedicate yourself to the Lord and be loyal? Now, are you really making a new decision to live by faith and putting more effort into it? Are you passionately loving your brother and sacrificing yourself for it? When we examine ourselves in these things, we will be forced to find ourselves so disloyal and ashamed before the Lord.
What should I do after looking at myself like this? If you discover your sins and shame, you must truly repent. We don't normally look back on our sins and shame, so we sit before God without repenting. How shameless and abominable is this? What grace and blessing can we expect from doing so? As we look at these aspects of ourselves, we need to repent and beat our hearts before the Lord who died on the cross for us. When we truly repent, the Lord forgives our sins and transgressions. And I will worship with a repentant heart, and when I participate in this ceremony, he will personally come to meet me and give me special and abundant grace.
Before participating in this sacrament meeting today, I urge you to reflect on yourself. And let us share in the bread and cup of the Lord with a repentant heart and a new determination. So, through this sacrament meeting, I hope that the Lord will come into my heart, meet me, and experience the grace of pouring out spiritual grace to the full.